Hand Warmer Lab Report

Hand warmers are small pouches that heat up when they come in contact with air, typically used to keep hands warm in cold temperatures. The contents inside the hand warmers, mainly the iron powder and activated charcoal, and oxygen in the atmosphere, react with each other chemically to create warmth. Inside the pouch, there is iron powder. When it comes in contact with oxygen, the iron rusts and releases heat. The outside bag is a microporous pouch, which has tiny holes that are big enough to allow air inside, providing the oxygen for the reaction between iron and oxygen. Inside the hand warmer, there is also activated charcoal, which is charcoal that has been heated in the presence of an oxidizer. It holds in all the water that is needed for the oxidation to start, and it also conducts heat so that the heat spreads out evenly. In addition to these three main ingredients, there is also vermiculite, which is hydrated magnesium aluminum silicate. The vermiculite, when heated, becomes very light and absorbent and acts as an insulator in the hand warmer. As with the activated charcoal, it also diffuses the iron powder so that the filings don’t burn up too quickly (4). The chemical reaction happening inside
The catalysts remain unchanged throughout the entire reaction because they are not part of the reactants or products. When chemical reactions happen, the chemical bonds of the reactants are rearranged (7). The rearrangement of chemical bonds, called the transition state, is the slowest part of the process of a chemical reaction. To go into the transition state, energy is required, and the amount of energy needed is called the activation energy (Ea), shown as the bump in Figure 2 and Figure 3. If the activation energy is higher, the chemical reaction takes longer to happen. Catalysts can help lower the activation energy, as seen in Figure 3, which quickens the reaction and allows more molecules to reaction